1 View Can Change Everything

Meeting people, no matter who they are, what their title is, what company they work for or how much money they make, is what will grow your business and can transform your life.

Just in starting this blog a few years ago, I always said to the people that would question it, “What’s the point of all this? Why do 10 people care what you have to say a couple times a week?”

My answer to them would be that you never know how something you write is going to resonate with someone that may be interested in starting or furthering their business with you. Now that a few hundred thousand of you get this blog everyday, you can start to draw parallels to how the consistency and relevancy of your content over time can produce great results.

On the subject, my friend Gary Vaynerchuk wrote about how every view counts. That’s something a lot of marketers should take to heart.

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It baffles me how many people think that they’re bigger than they actually are.

I hear people say, “Well, how do I get in the New York Times?” or “How do I get that meeting with that CEO?” and often times, I just say, “One is better than zero.”

Now this might catch you off guard, but let me explain.

The concept around one is better than zero is simply a call to action to do. It’s understanding that one view is better than zero and that humility and patience is the foundation for success.

The time it takes to get your foot in the door at the biggest companies in the world is often years and years of hard work. It’s all the little things that you do along the way that add up to something more. So before you get a meeting with Mark Zuckerberg or Mark Cuban or me, you’re going to have to take 100 meetings with your friend, and your uncle and your neighbor. You need to put in the work.

People are always messaging me like “Man, you’ve been on Conan, and Ellen, and the Today Show, and CNN, and FOX. How do I do that?” and I’m like, “Well, I also did 2 thousand interviews on videos, and blogs and podcasts that got one or 19 or 137 views.”

My PR people, and all my managers and handlers are actually pissed at me, because they’re like, “Why are you spending 15 minutes doing these blogs that have six readers every single day, and you’re passing on stuff that might have a larger audience?”

Well, that’s how I built my career.

It’s the patience and willingness to do 500 interviews and conference calls and meetings over coffee that never turn into anything. I mean hell, I did wine library TV shows everyday for an entire year before anyone said a thing!

The moral of the story is that one is always better than zero. It’s better to get 1 view than zero because you were waiting for your “big break.” Big breaks don’t often exist. Lebron became an all star player after 10 years in the gym. Nothing happens overnight.

Honestly, I am often even more excited about being on a podcast or a video blog that’s only going to reach 100 people because I’m in love with being different. I love to give back to people starting with 100 views and understand the struggle and the hustle of people just trying to make their dream real. I’ve been there. I know what it’s like.

So my question for you is why aren’t you willing to get 100 views? What makes you so fancy? Until you’re Oprah, or The Rock, or Tony Robbins, you can’t be romantic. You can’t choose. What’s the alternative? If you don’t take the podcast with 26 listeners then what are you doing?

Even today I do podcasts and interviews and selfies for content that will give me no brand or financial return. The reason I do that is because I want to give back to people that are fans of me.

And so even today when I have a lot more leverage than I did three or four or five years ago to get on bigger platforms, I still live under the motto that “one is better than zero”.

This is all part of the process of putting in the work and being humble and patient in my success.

I mean seriously, I don’t know who you think you are. You haven’t had the exposure yet. You don’t have thousands of followers on Instagram. You are still building your brand. You are still figuring it all out. I promise you that the greatest mistake you can possibly make is saying no. Be open to opportunity and if things don’t go well, move on! You have 500 more interviews to go!

I did so many 87s and 59s and 137s and 813 view videos, day in and day out. It’s part of the key to my success.

I promise you every view counts. You may look at a video and only see 246 views and write it off. But one of those 200 viewers might be a producer at CNN, or might be the CFO of a big company that you’re trying to reach. And in 10 years that content creator could become a massive celebrity and all of the sudden your podcast interview has a million views.

So undervaluing just that one view is an enormous mistake.

It’s about having the humility, it’s about not saying no, even when you’ve made it. The “one is better than zero” concept is something I’m really proud that I continue to execute on.

Do you have the humility and patience in you?

--This article was written by Gary Vaynerchuk and originally appeared here.